ASUS ROG MAXIMUS VIII FORMULA Z170 LGA1151

ROG MAXIMUS VIII FORMULA: Perfect your build from cooling to color

For almost a decade, Republic of Gamers (ROG) has delivered exemplary design and performance to thrill the world s best gamers and PC enthusiasts. But our work has only just begun. Maximus VIII Formula has been pumped up and packed to the brim with enhancements, so competitors be warned, gamers get set and enthusiasts prepare to push your limits — ROG is ready to accept all challenges!

Best Gaming Cooling
If build bold, crave quiet and demand the coolest of the cool then Maximus VIII Formula is the only motherboard for you. With an all-new dedicated cooling block primed for your favorite liquid-cooling pipes, Maximus VIII Formula is the winning formula.

CrossChill EK: Expertly Tooled. Totally Cooled.
ROG teamed up with the cooling masters at EK Water Blocks to create CrossChill EK, an extreme-performance cooling block with a copper channel that s hungry for either air or liquid. CrossChill EK is the coolest choice for custom-chilled builds enabling quieter rigs that run great on air — and even better with water. With G1/4in threaded fittings CrossChill EK is a quick fit for your existing setup and, when you chill with liquid, you ll shrink MOSFET temperatures by up to 23°C!

Best Gaming LIGHTING
Build with Maximus VIII Formula and you ll build… BRIGHT! With a built-in Aura RGB-strip header and easy lighting controls, it s never been easier to light up your rig — and your LAN parties!

Light Up As Easy As RGB: RGB Illumination, Aura 4-Pin RGB-Strip Header & Lighting Control
We use high-precision laser-engraving technology to carve beautifully intricate patterns across the ROG Armor that enrobes Maximus VIII Formula, allowing the radiant RGB light of 28 integrated LEDs to shine through and illuminate key parts of the board — including the MOSFET heatsink cover, PCIe area and the striking ROG logo on the PCH cover! Forget the faff of external RGB controllers! With ROG s Aura RGB Strip header, it s quick and easy to cast brilliant colors across your rig and room: Just slide standard 12V RGB strips onto the 4-pin Aura RGB-strip header, then weave your lighting any way you like. Customize static, strobing and pulsating effects, or have the colors change in time with music or indicate CPU temperature.
*The Aura RGB-strip header supports standard 5050 RGB LED strips with a maximum power rating of 2A (12V). For maximum brightness, strip length should not exceed 2m. *One extension cable is included. RGB LED strips need to be purchased separately.

Maximus VIII Formula also includes the amazing Aura lighting-control utility to cast stunning multi-color glows across your gaming rig, via the motherboard s powerful built-in RGB LEDs or attached RGB strips, or both — and in perfect synchronization! Fire up Aura and then enjoy the creative freedom of six different lighting schemes:

• Static: Always on
• Breathing: Fades in & out
• Strobing: Flashes on & off
• Color cycle: Fades between the colors of the rainbow
• Music effect: Pulses to the beat of your music
• CPU temperature: Changes color with CPU load

Best Gaming Audio
You d never win with your eyes closed, so open your ears up to the best audio for the battlefield! ROG s awesome audio expertise is the result of extensive R&D, and SupremeFX is the crystal-clear result — onboard sound as superior as your gaming rep!

Champion-Level Audio From SupremeFX 2015
Maximus VIII Formula s onboard audio isn t just good — it s as good as you can get! You benefit from the best gaming-audio inputs and outputs, with special shielded designs, and a collection of carefully selected professional-grade audio components, including an ESS® ES9023P digital-to-analog converter (DAC) with Hyperstream™ technology, ultra-low-jitter clock, Nichicon capacitors, 2VRMS headphone amp, and Sonic SenseAmp that automatically detects and optimizes any headset (32-600ohms) for purest sound quality. SupremeFX 2015 also features intuitive Sonic Studio II, so you ll apply and enjoy different audio effects for perfect entertainment — plus Perfect Voice noise-cancellation technology for team conversations with total clarity!

• Ultra-Durable Gold-Plated Audio Connectors: Distortion-free for enhanced audio-signal input and output.
• SupermeFX Audio Processor: Simultaneous 7.1-channel playback, independent 2.0-channel, multiple-stream stereo to front-panel outputs, and an EMI cover for purer audio quality.
• ESS® ES9023P Digital-To-Analog Converter (DAC): Creates a perfect balance for top-tier audio clarity capable of -94dB THD.
• High-Precision Clock Source: High-accuracy timing technology ensures ultra-low jitter by preventing fluctuating temperatures.
• Nichicon Capacitors: Deliver the highest-quality sound resolution and expansion for especially warm and natural audio.
• 2 VRMS Headphone Amp: Provides the perfect current and voltage for true-to-life tonality and spacious sound imaging.
• Sonic Senseamp: Automatically detects and optimizes outputs for different headphone impedance (32-600 ohms).
• De-Pop Relay: Dedicated relay eliminates the popping sound when the system is powered on or off, or devices are attached or removed.

Intuitive Audio-Tuning Suite Sonic Studio II

Casting Enhancer
Casting Enhancer improves both streaming and recording audio quality, reducing noise artifacts and stabilizing overall voice volume. It also improves all the rich details and boost bass effect of in-game sounds and music playback.

Perfect Voice
Perfect Voice reduces noise during in-game chat so every teammate is heard, and no command is missed.

Sonic Studio
One-click virtual-surround function emulates 7.1 channels, even through a stereo (2.0-channel) headset. It offers five more superb audio controls, including Reverb, Bass Boost, Equalizer, Voice Clarity and Smart EQ — ensuring that everything you hear sounds just amazing.

Best Gaming Performance
Greater performance means smoother gameplay — and that means more chances to win. With the best overclocking (OC) design, UEFI BIOS and intuitive OC gadget and utility, you ll enjoy unmatched performance — coupled with an exclusive cooling design ensures your system never breaks a sweat.

One Click Overclock and Cooling, Done!
Get performance, efficiency, digital power, fan control and even networking and audio tuning tailored for you - and the way you play!

You don t need to be an expert to max out gaming performance on your Maximus VIII Formula build s gaming performance — because 5-Way Optimization sorts all the complex settings with a click, for instant, highly-controllable performance boosts! Our exclusive technology dynamically optimizes essential aspects of your system based on real-time use, so you get superb CPU performance, everyday energy savings, ultra-stable digital power, cool and quiet fans and even networking and audio settings that are tailored for the apps that you are using. In short, 5-Way Optimization ensures that your PC is perfect for gaming, entertainment, productivity or just about anything else!

• Games run swiftly and smoothly with high performance, prioritized bandwidth and vivid sound.
• Fans stay whisper-quiet for everyday computing, and ensure extreme cooling efficiency when gaming.
• Stutter is eliminated for smooth-running apps, even under heavy loading.
• Energy waste is reduced so you ll save money.

Instant CPU Performance Boost
Crank up your PC s gaming grunt instantly with the ASUS AI Suite 3 utility! The TurboV Processing Unit (TPU) offers precise voltage control and advanced monitoring for the CPU and the graphics card, enabling great freedom to adjust CPU frequencies and ratios for optimized performance and to exploit the potential out of your graphics card.

All-round Energy Efficiency
With the Energy Processing Unit (EPU) you ll enjoy real-time, system-wide power savings — for gaming kicks that won t cost the earth! EPU automatically detects and adjusts power consumption according to your rig s needs, so you save money without compromising the thrills. EPU will also reduce CPU wattage to a set level and deliver even more savings with Away Mode, creating an extreme energy-saving scenario that shuts down unused extra I/O controllers and reduces the graphics cards power level. So, full power for your gameplay — and then total energy efficiency when you step away!

Cooler by design
Play quieter and cooler with advanced fan and water-pump controls for the ultimate in undisturbed gaming. With onboard thermal sensors and hardware-level 4-pin/3-pin PWM/DC mode detection, Fan Xpert 3 makes sure every fan achieves the best balance of high cooling performance and low noise, so you enjoy all the performance you demand with none of the racket!

• Auto-Tuning Mode: Scans fan parameters, and all fans with a single click.
• Extreme Quite Mode: Reduces CPU fan speed to below the default minimum, for extra-quiet operation and power savings during light loads.
• RPM Fixed Mode: Lowers noise levels to near-0dB silence, allowing to you fix the fan speed.

Precise Digital Power Control
To go faster than fast you need ultra-accurate power control — So & MAXIMUS VIII FORMULA motherboards are kitted out with ASUS Digi+ Power Control for maxed-out overclocking potential, enhanced system stability and superb power efficiency. Digi+ Power Control is the industry s leading digital power controller and it s fully compliant with Intel s IMVP8 specifications, for smoother, safer power.

Turbo App: Accelerate Your Favourite Apps and Games with Automated Ease
ASUS-exclusive Turbo App s intuitive tuning panel boosts multiple hardware components to maximize gaming exhilaration, overclocking your CPU, tuning your fans, prioritizing network data and optimizing audio settings — all with automated ease. And now Turbo App is even more powerful than before, giving you the ability to connect to profiles previously set in Sonic Studio II and KeyBot II, so setup couldn t be simpler!

OC Design: Asus Pro Clock Technology
Thought you d taken overclocking as far as it could go? Meet ASUS Pro Clock, a dedicated base-clock (BCLK) generator designed for 6th-generation Intel® processors that ramps BCLK frequencies up to 400MHz or even beyond*. This custom solution works in tandem with the ASUS TurboV Processing Unit (TPU) to enhance voltage and base-clock overclocking control — providing an exciting new way to boost performance to extremes!

Advantages of ASUS Pro Clock:
• Reduced boot times
• Lower jitter under extreme conditions for higher overclocks
• Increased stability under heavy overclocking
* BCLK-overclocking range varies according to CPU capabilities, cooling, motherboard support and tuning options. Ranges up to 650MHz are possible under select conditions.

DDR4 Overclocking: Strength In Numbers
Second-generation ASUS T-Topology pushes DDR4 memory overclocking to over 3733MHz with all memory slots populated — and that means the best-ever gaming performance from your Maximus VIII Formula rig! Featuring a customized trace layout for reduced crosstalk and coupling noise, second-generation T-Topology ensures time-aligned signal transfer for improved memory stability and compatibility.

Media-Acclaimed UEFI BIOS
The smoothest, slickest mouse-controlled graphical BIOS has been improved to make it even more gorgeous. Whether you re a PC novice or a seasoned overclocker, the EZ and Advanced Modes help you find your way, quickly and easily.

• EZ Flash 3: Flash the latest BIOS via the internet, and from within the BIOS.
• SMART: Check up your storages devices Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (SMART) logs to gauge reliability, and even determine if they re about to fail.
• EZ Tuning Wizard– OC and RAID: Select your hardware and apply different scenarios to tune system performance, or streamline your RAID configuration for faster data retrieval and backups!
• My Favorites: Quickly find tuning options and add preferred tools to the list.

EZ mode
• Intuitive graphical fan control: Fine-tune individual fans simply by dragging a curve with the mouse.
• EZ XMP: Improve your DRAM performance with a click.
• SATA Information: View SATA port details for easy device recognition.
• Fast Clock Adjustment: Use mouse controls to change the time and date.

Advanced Mode
• GPU POST: Automatically detect selected ASUS graphics cards to view detailed information.
• Secure Erase: Restore your SSDs to factory-fresh condition.
• Last Modified Log: Track last change and save preferred profiles onto a USB drive.
• SATA Port Renaming: Rename SATA ports for easy identification.

USB UEFI BIOS Flashback
Refresh your BIOS in a flash, even when the system is off.

The Finest Power, Digitally Controlled
ROG s revered digital power controller now delivers even-finer power, with Texas Instruments NexFET™ MOSFETs, MicroFine alloy chokes, Digi+ PWM controller and 10K black metallic capacitors — ensuring Extreme Engine Digi+ always delivers the smoothest core voltages!

Speed Your Game Loads
ROG s uniquely-intelligent technology effectively caches an entire storage device so that favorite games and apps launch at breakneck speeds, getting to work the moment it s activated. RAMCache turns milliseconds into microseconds to boost game-load times to stratospheric levels, and minimizes risk of data loss!

Best Gaming Connectivity
Maximus VIII Formula accelerates every connection, with the fastest 802.11 ac MU-MIMO Wi-Fi, the latest reversible USB 3.1 Type-C and the newest U.2 socket for lighting speed NVM Express devices – kicking every game into top gear.

Join The NVMe Revolution with Built-In U.2 Connector
Unlock the full potential of your storage with NVM Express (NVMe), the revolutionary specification that lets your SSDs scream at top speed. Just attach your drive to the built-in U.2 connector with plug-and-play ease to experience data-transfer speeds of up to 32Gbit/s — and free up a PCIe slot for another expansion card!

Speed Up With Onboard M.2 Up To 32Gbit/s
With x4 PCI Express 3.0/2.0 bandwidth, M.2 supports up to 32Gbit/s data-transfer speeds. It is the perfect choice for an operating system or application drive, making your whole PC or professional apps work as fast as possible.

Fast storage speed with SATA Express
Current SSDs devour up to 550MB/s bandwidth, which is close to saturation point for SATA 6Gbit/s connections. Backwardly compatible with up to two SATA drives, SATA Express is the next-generation connectivity standard — and ensures that you and your system won t get left behind.

Ultimate-Speed 10Gbit/s with 2 USB 3.1 Onboard
With one USB 3.1 Type-A port, and one reversible USB 3.1 Type-C, you ll experience data-transfer speeds of up to 10Gbit/s — or twice as fast USB 3.0. USB 3.1 is completely backward-compatible with your existing USB devices, and you ll be all set for USB 3.1 s breakneck speeds. And ASUS-exclusive USB 3.1 Boost technology automatically accelerates USB 3.1 performance even further!

Best Gaming Networking
Lag means lost frags, so Maximus VIII Formula motherboards deliver the sucker punch of superior hardware and software — letting you focus on the game, while your ROG rig lands lag a knock-out blow!

More Throughput, Less Processing, Faster Online Play
ROG features the very latest Intel® Ethernet (I219-V) for faster, smoother gaming — always. Intel s LAN has the serious double advantage of reducing CPU overhead and offering exceptionally high TCP and UDP throughput, so there s more power for your game and your gameplay.

Pumped-Up Throughput: Best Surge Protection
LANGuard means safer, more reliable connections for your battles! Advanced signal-coupling technology and premium surface-mounting processes join forces to protect your Maximus VIII Formula motherboard s connection and deliver pumped-up throughput, plus electrostatically-guarded and surge-protected components (ESD Guards) for 1.9X-greater tolerance to static electricity and 2.5X-greater protection (up to 15KV) against surges!

2x2 802.11ac Wi-Fi With MU-MIMO
Maximus VIII Formula has next-level 802.11ac Wi-Fi with 2x2 dual-band 2.4/5GHz antennas for up to 867Mbit/s* transfer speeds — and the very latest Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO) technology to ensure that every connected user** experiences the best wireless and online speeds!
* Actual speed varies, and Wi-Fi hotspot feature operates at 802.11a/b/g/n. Windows 10 does not currently support Wi-Fi hotspot functionality. ** Requires MU-MIMO-ready client.

Team Up To Banish Lag

GameFirst IV Beta
GameFirst IV Beta optimizes network traffic for faster, lag-free online gaming — and now we ve added Multi-Gate Teaming to team all your networks for maximum bandwidth and the smoothest-ever gameplay. You ll also enjoy all-new Intelligent mode, which automatically compiles a database by parsing new app data to ensure that every game is optimized for the best performance.

Multi-Gate Teaming
Team all your network gateways for maximum bandwidth and assign connections to every application for the smoothest-ever gameplay.

Best Gaming Protection
As a gamer you demand stability and durability, so ROG integrates long-lasting, premium components, plus exclusive smart DIY designs across the board — ensuring the best gaming experiences.

ROG Armor: Style, Strength, And Cooling In One
Strong ABS Top Cover – Stylish thermal protection that blocks heat from graphics cards and ensures lower system temperatures for better performance — and chic looks! Solid Steel Backplate – The steel, electro-galvanized, cold-rolled coil (SECC) construction strengthens Maximus VIII Formula to prevent bending, employing thermal pads to efficiently conduct heat away from crucial components.

• ESD Guards: 2x greater electrostatic protection than standard. ESD Guards cover the PS2, USB, audio and LAN ports.
• TrueVolt USB: 2 dedicated USB power supplies rock-steady 5V to all USB ports, minimizing power fluctuations for minimal data loss.
• CPU installation tool: 1 layer protection from socket-pin damage.
• Q-connector: 1 piece sorts all front-panel cables.
• Q-Slot: 1 clip to swap or secure your graphics card.
• Q-DIMM: 1 sided clips for super-simple, super-secure handling of memory modules.
• DRAM Over-current Protection: 1 additional resettable fuse protects connection ports and DRAM against overcurrent and short-circuit damage.
• Black nickel-coated Q-Shield: 0 pain! Protect your hands form nicks and cuts.

ROG Gives You More

Overwolf: Stay In The Game
The clever unobtrusive overlay that keeps you in the game, so you can browse, email, IM, stream or record while you play, and all dressed up in color-matched ROG skins to show you re part of an elite pack — available for download from Overwolf s app store!

KeyBot II: The Free Keyboard Upgrade - Upgraded!
Free keyboard upgrade from an exclusive microprocessor and intuitive user interface. Record macros directly from the keyboard, switch profiles in moments, enable special functions with hotkey from F1-F10, start and even boost your PC from shutdown (S5 mode)!

• Macro Keys: Record sequences simply by typing from the keyboard.
• Function Keys: Assign convenient shortcuts and game-related functions.
• Shortcut: Assign any application or folder for easy launch.
• S5 Mode: You can even use KeyBot II to boost your PC into a specific mode with two-second press.

What s In The Box!
• ROG cable stickers: 12 labels for your cables.
• SATA cable: 8 cables for greater storage.
• ROG fan stickers: 3 badges of honor for your fans.
• RGB extension cable: 1 cable for greater flexibility.
• Door hanger: 0 disturbances while gaming.

And.. More!
• AI Suite 3: One-stop control panel.
• ROG theme CPU-Z: Shows your important system information with pride.
• Mem TweakIt: Dynamic timing monitoring, DRAM efficiency gauge.
• RAMDisk: Boost your favorite applications up to 20X faster than SSD with the junction function.
• Sonic Radar II: A stealthy overlay that maps battlefield sounds so you can locate opponents and teammates at a glance.
• Kaspersky® Anti-Virus (1 year): The best protection from viruses and spyware.
• DAEMON Tools Pro Standard (1 year): The leading tool for optical and virtual discs.
• PC Cleaner: Accelerate your PC by eliminating clogs with simple click.
• 100% SteamOS support: Play your favorite Steam games now and forever.
• Radar on the latest gaming innovations: ROG s sights are locked on future revolutions and relationships.

The Power of Intel

Intel® Z170 Chipset
Intel® Z170 is a single-chipset design that supports 6th-generation Intel® LGA1151 Core™ i7/Core™ i5/Core™ i3/Pentium®/Celeron® processors. It provides improved performance by utilizing serial point-to-point links, allowing increased bandwidth and stability. Additionally, Z170 provides a maximum of ten USB 3.0 ports, six SATA 6Gbit/s ports, 32Gbit/s M.2 and PCIe 3.0 lane speed support for faster data retrieval. Intel® Z170 Express also supports integrated-graphics (iGPU) functions, so you ll enjoy the very latest Intel integrated graphics performance.

Ready for 6th-generation Intel® LGA1151 Core™ i7/Core™ i5/Core™ i3/Pentium®/Celeron® processors
This motherboard supports 6th-generation Intel® Core™ i7/i5/i3/Pentium®/Celeron® processors in the LGA1151 package, with graphics, memory and PCI Express controllers integrated to support onboard graphics output with dedicated chipsets, two-channel (4-DIMM) DDR4 memory and 16 PCI Express 3.0/2.0 lanes for great graphics performance.